Education

Introduction

The AKDN’s education programmes cover a wide spectrum of activities ranging from early childhood care and education through to degrees in medicine. The Aga Khan Education Services, the Aga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan University, the Aga Khan Academies and the University of Central Asia are the lead organisations in education, but all institutions are involved in some form of training or education, whether it is through curriculum reform, exhibitions of Islamic art or literacy programmes for employees of economic project companies. School improvement programmes and the professional development of teachers and administrators play a central role in strategies designed to improve access - with a special emphasis on girls - and raise retention rates and overall achievement. Others address cross-cultural understanding in North America and Central Asia through curriculum design. All programmes, including their research components, strive for excellence in design and implementation and relevance to developing world contexts.

The conviction that home-grown intellectual leadership of exceptional calibre is the best driver of society’s future development, and that many developing country education systems are too engulfed by poverty and numbers to develop their talented young people, led His Highness the Aga Khan to found a network of catalytic centres of educational excellence in Asia and Africa, known as the Aga Khan Academies. More

Aga Khan Education Services (AKES)

Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) currently operates more than 200 schools and advanced educational programmes that provide quality pre-school, primary, secondary, and higher secondary education services to more than 54,000 students in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Tajikistan. In every setting, AKES’s programmes are designed to pursue excellence in educational practice and management; to introduce child-centred teaching methods; emphasise female education; and support school-based teacher training.> Find out more on Aga Khan Education Services> Visit the Aga Khan Schools website

Aga Khan Foundation

The Aga Khan Foundation strives to improve the quality of basic education by ensuring better early caring and learning environments for young children; increasing access to education; keeping children in school longer; and raising levels of academic achievement. Girls, the very poor and geographically remote populations receive special attention. The focus of current grants are on the following areas: the location, timing and content of teacher training; professional development for all categories of educators and caregivers; the role of governments, NGOs, communities and parents in financing and managing education; and the cultural and economic relevance of the curriculum. Roughly half the education projects it supports, as well as half the financial investments it makes, is concentrated in stimulating the development of the young child. > Find out more on the Aga Khan Foundation

Aga Khan University (AKU)

Chartered in 1983 as Pakistan’s first private university, Aga Khan University's objective is to promote human welfare in general, and the welfare of the people of Pakistan in particular, by disseminating knowledge and providing instruction, training, research and service in the health sciences, education and such other branches of learning as the University may determine. Through its Medical College, School of Nursing and teaching Hospital, its Institute for Educational Development, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations and the Examination Board, the University educates while contributing to the development of the areas in which it operates. It currently has nine teaching sites in five countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom.> Find out more on Aga Khan University> Visit the Aga Khan University website

Aga Khan Academies

The conviction that home-grown intellectual leadership of exceptional calibre is the best driver of society’s future development led His Highness the Aga Khan to found an integrated network of residential schools in Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East, known as the Aga Khan Academies. The Aga Khan Academies have a dual mission: to offer exceptional girls and boys from all backgrounds - irrespective of their families’ ability to pay - an international standard of education from pre-primary to secondary levels with a rigorous academic and leadership experience; and to strengthen the profession of teaching by investing substantially in the professional development of teachers, locally and regionally. The first such school, the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, began operating in August of 2003.> Find out more on Aga Khan Academies> Visit Aga Khan Academies website

University of Central Asia (UCA)

The University of Central Asia (UCA) was founded in 2000 by the governments of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, and His Highness the Aga Khan. Its programmes are geared towards addressing key social and economic issues facing the region and, particularly, facing mountain communities.

UCA’s School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPCE), which is currently offering courses, is Central Asia’s first provider of formal, university-based, non-degree educational programmes, offering vocational, professional development and personal improvement opportunities to youth and adults. UCA will eventually offer a range of internationally recognized academic programmes, including undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree courses, non-degree preparatory courses for incoming degree candidates, and vocational, professional development and distance education courses for students and professionals beyond the three UCA campuses.> Find out more on University of Central Asia> Visit University of Central Asia website

Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance

Microfinance for Women in Northern Pakistan

Since its establishment in 2005, the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) has taken over 25 years of microfinance activities, programmes and banks that were administered by sister agencies within the AKDN. The underlying objectives of the Agency are to reduce poverty, diminish the vulnerability of poor populations and alleviate economic and social exclusion. more